July 4th, 2012 was a unique day not only because it marked the bicentennial of the War of 1812 in which America went to battle with our northern neighbor Canada, but also seemed to be the beginning of summer in the Pacific Northwest. It was hard to complain about such a cold spring. The rest of the country has been in a horrible heat wave/drought and we were coming off a second amazing winter due to persisting La Nina conditions, but it did seem like a very dreary June.

As the Spring warms into early Summer, the quest for smooth corn snow inevitably ends with sun cups. Sometimes you can hit the sun cups when they’re soft enough to carve right through and other times they’ll make you feel like a beginner snowboarder. One of the most annoying things is having your splitboard tip…

I just put together a new video for the heel lock down showing more details. Check it out. In our endless journey to make splitboard equipment the best it can be, Karakoram will be releasing a new heel lock down system for 2012-13. The heel lock down will be compatible with all Karakoram Splitboard Bindings…

The North Cascades have to be one of my favorite places to tour. We are pretty spoiled with the variety of mountainous terrain we have within a three hour drive Seattle. The North Cascades are a little different than the rest of the mountains in Washington. They seem a bit more grand, maybe it’s the higher elevation, maybe it’s the larch groves, maybe it’s just that I always end up going to the North Cascades when have a bit more time to tour on my splitboard. What ever it is I always have a great time splitboarding up north. This season I was lucky enough to carve out time for two trips.

Trips usually start with a long drive from Seattle and then a bonfire on the side of Highway 20.

“On May 20th, 2012, for the first time in 26,000 years the sun, the moon and the constellation responsible for our evolution and ascension, the mysitc Pleiades, [aligned] in a spectacular total solar eclipse directly over one of the most powerful, mysterious, spiritual vortexes in the world: the mighty Mount Shasta” (http://www.divinetravels.com/Shasta.html).

Chris, Tyler and I drove down from Seattle to meet up with the Jones, TGR, twsnow and Further crew, for this was a once in 26,000 year event we couldn’t miss. Anticipation was high and everyone was on the look out for Lemurians, UFOs and Crystal Cities ascending.

A possible UFO sighting or maybe it’s just a glow in the dark frisbee…

Once a year, whether you live in the northern or southern hemisphere, the earth’s spinning axis tilts towards the sun. This has a profound impact: days get longer and temperatures rise. Just about every eco-system on the planet responds to this. Just as life has evolved to use water, so has it evolved to use sunrays. It’s Spring Time! And every year this seems to elicit a population-wide increase in happiness levels.

The third Mt. Baker Splitboard festival was great time. The last two we worked up until the last minute to finish off prototypes and demo bindings. This year we were a little bit more prepared, but we still rolled in a little late for the Demo set up on Friday evening. We’ll be on time next year… I always look forward to the Mt. Baker Splitboard fest because it is the time of year that I actually get to ride my snowboard a bit more.

In our endless journey to make splitboard equipment the best it can be, Karakoram will be releasing a new heel lock down system for 2012-13. The heel lock down will be compatible with all Karakoram Splitboard Bindings (Split30, SL and Prime) starting from 2010. The purpose of the heel lock down is to allow splitboarders to skate more efficiently on flat terrain, and traverse and side step without skins on in tour mode.

There are some lucky people that get to follow the snow for a living. I think everyone who loves to ride has done it or wishes they could pull away from their 8-5 job and live the dream of riding powder everyday. Neil Provo is one of those lucky people. Neil has teamed up with…